Arizona Man Arrested In Connection With Remains Found Near Hinton

State investigators got a big break in identifying remains found along Interstate 40 near mile marker 103.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation opened the case in April 2015.

A state Department of Transportation worker was clearing cedar brush in the area and came across a woman's remains tucked under a tree.

At the time, investigators said the body was so badly decomposed it would be difficult to identify the person.

OSBI spokeswoman Jessica Brown said a DNA sample uploaded to the National Missing and Unidentified Person's System (NamUs) recently helped link the remains to Veneranda (also known as Veranda) Flores, of New Mexico.

Flores, 24, disappeared from Albuquerque, New Mexico, in December 2014.

A Facebook page dedicated to finding Flores and a missing person's flier indicated she was last seen getting into a semi-truck outside a casino in Albuquerque.

The missing person's flier also indicated Flores was last seen with a man named Juan Gonzalez at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 21, 2014.

"We are still investigating what happened...we don't know how she died at this time," said Brown.

OSBI agents said they were able to trace some of Flores' last steps and it led them to Glendale, Arizona.

There, authorities arrested Juan Gonzalez, 40, on Friday in his Glendale, Arizona, home. Gonzalez worked as a long-haul truck driver at the time of Flores' disappearance.

Gonzalez is being held on a complaint for unlawful disposal of a body.

The OSBI is now working to extradite him to Oklahoma to continue the investigation.